This Application claims the benefit of JP 315,521/2001 filed Oct. 12, 2001 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skin application structure for robots and a robot having such a structure in the shape of animals, plants, insects, and tentacles regardless of reality or unreality, and being used in a human-centered environment such as a factory or a home.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the robot in the related art exposes the outer surface of its casing formed of metal or resin, when it falls down or runs into something, it may injure or cause damage to the surrounding objects or human. In addition, since the casing or the mechanical element is exposed, the appearance is crude and harsh to the touch, and thus it does not give a sense of closeness and warmth. Even when it had a high-quality finished form and made various actions to shorten mental distance to humans, there were many women and aged persons who did not show any interest in the robot that exposes the casing or the mechanism.
There are animal toys having a soft skin like a stuffed animal applied thereon. However, when such a skin is applied on the robot, maintenance of the robot cannot be conducted. In addition, the skin of the stuffed animal applied to the robot body exerts too much load on the movable portion thereof, which disadvantageously results in reducing the driving force.